Venus to put on Sun spectacular - Planet Venus is set to move across the face of the Sun as viewed from Earth.
The more than six-and-a-half-hour transit, which starts just after 22:00 GMT (23:00 BST) on Tuesday is a very rare astronomical phenomenon that will not be witnessed again until 2117.
Observers will position themselves in northwest America, the Pacific, and East Asia to catch the whole event.
But some part of the spectacle will be visible across a much broader swathe of Earth's surface, weather permitting.
--Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
Follow Venus as it transits the sun -- on your smartphone - The app allows citizen scientists to see where on Earth the transit is visible and at what times. It also lets users record their own observations about the transit of Venus -- noting when it hits the edge of the sun -- and share pictures of the transit via Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.
The app makers are framing the app as way to re-create the 1769 experiment when European nations sent scientists on ships to observe the transit from various points on the globe in the hopes of getting enough data to determine how far the Earth is from the sun.
--Deborah Netburn, LA Times
Also See Neon Vincent's:Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Venus Transit, Partial Eclipse, and Total Recall edition)
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest
(graphic by palantir)
The OND is published each night around midnight, Eastern Time.
The originator of OND was Magnifico.
Regular editors are jlms qkw, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, with occasional guest stints from maggiejean and annetteboardman. NeonVincent edits on Saturdays and serves as chief cat herder.
Read More